Crystal Groves

• is happy she got @peterhassett to sing to her. He is a very talented musician, folks. #music #awesome #SHRED #
• Every time I play in public, people ask for a CD. I definitely need a CD. #
• was treated to Sushi to lunch by a good friend. Very impressed by China Garden in #frederick #sushi #
• Playing at the yearly block party in the old neighborhood tonight. Also may have an interested buyer in dad's 79 F-150 #
• zomg bully puppy #love #
• 9 day traffic jam? Ya right!: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11062708 #china #chinatraffic #

• PAYCHECK FRIDAY #
• RT: @ArtiqueArt: Call for Artists, The Artists' Gallery is reviewing applicants for membership. Info can be found here http://bit.ly/bXbjQG #
• Also dad is scheduled to have a camera go through his veins next month down Sinai to see if he has a clogged artery. #
• Well, dad's brakes went out on him today, so now we gotta buy new brakes and calipers #whenitrains #
• Well, dad's breaks went out on him today, so now we gotta buy new breaks and calipers #whenitrains #
• DoTD: http://bit.ly/cSQaCZ & http://bit.ly/9tMXDK & http://bit.ly/9BuwVv #desktops #wallpapers #nintendo #
• Watched the new version of "Clash of the Titans" last night. Do all movies these days rely soley on CGI anymore? #
• On this day in 1920 the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing the right of women to vote was ratified. via @Historyday #
• RT: @alicia_stardust: Over 7.5 million egg laying hens in cramped cages at facility responsible 4 salmonella outbreak http://bit.ly/aIkAns #
• Big name egg brands have salmonella breakout: http://bit.ly/buTFSq More reason to buy farm eggs instead of factory (like from ME) #eggs #

I have a lot of upcoming financial goals, some of which I’m going to have to prioritize because I don’t think I’m going to be able to do all of them in the time frame I’d like. Of course my mind works best when I get all typed out so I can do my “think through” process.

A lot of this isn’t just financial either, it’s also depending on how much time I have left off work. Since I have a large amount of time I am taking off in October, that could hinder these plans as well.

And those that -are- financial, the timing could also depend on what freelance work I am able to pull in. I’m not afraid to work hard for it, so long as I can find the extra work.

Goal #1 – Debt free by March 2011 besides the house

I originally wanted to have this loan from my friend paid off in December, but that has been delayed. The goal for this is technically February now, which is only 2 months later than originally, but because of the delay it may set back all of my other plans below. This is the #1 priority goal before all the others.

Expense Breakdown:
Debt owed to friend: $4800
New Interest Debt: $1000

Estimated Expense:
$6000 by March 2011

Goal #2 – Trip to Scotland in May

A grove-mate is taking a year of college in Scotland starting this month. She wants us all to come out to visit, and of course we -want- to come out to visit. We’re planning to attend the yearly Beltane Festival out there at the end of April/Beginning of May.

My estimates after doing some flight and car rental pricing (haven’t done hotel rooms yet, but I did include a generous figure for them), is it will cost about $1000-$1500 to make this trip. This includes, food, lodging, rental car, spending money, passport, and flight fare. I’d likely save up the higher end of the figure to accommodate any last minute expenses or emergencies. If I don’t happen to spend it all, well then I have a nice cushion to put towards debt so I can’t lose.

As of right now if I started saving, I’d need to save up $161/month, which I am not able to do right now because of my debt repayment plan, and I don’t plan to derail that. However I do get a hefty tax return every year because of my itemized deductions, head of household with a dependent, and mortgage interest, so I suspect the majority of this will be taken care of with that. IF that’s what I decide to spend the tax return on.

If by some chance I am not finished paying off my debts by February, which is highly likely, then the tax return will go there instead. Since I won’t have anymore debt repayments except the house, then it’s still possible I could save up for the Scotland trip in a small amount of time by redirecting my former debt payments into my trip savings.

To be honest, this is probably the most expendable goal out of all of them. Not because I don’t really want to go, I REALLY want to go. But because it’s so expensive -and- the least practical. This trip is one I could really take any time, I don’t necessarily have to do it next year. I want to because my friend will be in college over there, and I know she’d love to see familiar faces. But it is a large expense that isn’t a necessity, and I have to remain practical.

The trips with the boyfriend are very inexpensive, which is why that aren’t rated as expendable (though still expendable as a whole).

Expense Breakdown:

• $400 round-trip flight, priced this month
• $400 for car rental fee, will be broken down into shared expense to all those who go, so could range from $50 to $200. I’m going to estimate at $50
• $200-$250 for food ($30/day for 7 days, generous figure)
• $100-$200 shopping leeway
• $135 for a passport
• $400 for hotel (just a guesstimate, haven’t priced these yet)

Estimated Expense:
$1500 by April 2011

Goal #3 – Time off with the boyfriend

I have two upcoming trips planned around the same time as the Scotland trip. One is to the Trillium festival, which I always go to, and the boyfriend plans to go with me next year. Because of his attendance, I’d likely want to take a few extra days off work to spend with him before and after the festival (especially since it’s also my birthday). This is a relatively inexpensive endeavor. It usually costs at most $50 for me to go to this festival, which includes the festival fee and meal plan. I already have all my camping gear so I don’t need to buy anything except a few odds and ends for him. The main issue here is available time off of work.

The other trip is for me to visit him for his birthday next spring. Which will be relatively inexpensive as well, just food and flight, but would require at least an additional 2 days off of work, maybe 3.

Expense Breakdown:
Trip to Trillium in April: $55 + gas (he will likely pay for his own festival ticket)
Extra Travel/food expenses while he’s visiting: $80
Half of his flight to MD: $100

Half of my flight to -him-: $100
Extra travel/food expenses while I’m visiting $50

Estimated Expense:
$500 to be generous for both trips, by Jan 2011 in order to buy tickets early

Goal #4 – Buy dad a used vehicle in September 2011

I want to buy my dad a used vehicle under $10k that is 2000 or newer, has less than 75k miles, is 4WD, and gets decent gas mileage. But I must pay for it in cash because I refuse to take out anymore debt. So I will have to not only save up for this, but am also researching a proper vehicle for him. I don’t necessarily want to delay this goal, but I may not have a choice. At least his vehicles are working -for now-.

Estimated Expense:
$10,000 is the max I’m willing to pay for this, by September 2011 (or as soon as I am able after that)

So yeah, next spring is looking busier and not financially friendly. I’ll just have to see how things go between now and then.

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I’ve talked before about how I give my dad an allowance each month of about $200-$300. After his social security benefits come through and he pays all his bills and debts (the largest monthly payment being his health insurance), he doesn’t have much left over for food or gas. I take care of all the utilities and bills, he helps out paying a third of the mortgage.

I used to give him all of his allowance at once at the beginning of the month. That didn’t work out so well because he’d usually spend it all within a week.

Then I used to give him half at the beginning and then half mid-month. That also didn’t work out because he’d spend both payments within a week, leaving him with no much else at the end of the month when I was also running low on budgeted funds till my next pay period.

So this month I’ve started giving him $50-$75/week, usually on Wednesdays. That’s enough for his gas for that week, and a trip or two to the country restaurant or coffee shop to chat with the old farmers each week.

So far this seems to be working much better, because there’s no temptation to spend it all, and he’s guaranteed to have money next week rather than borrowing more money from me. I suppose I should have done this sooner, but it I guess this is how you find out what works.

Burnt grass and foliage in Gettysburg from just this morning

This is the dryest summer that I can remember. I don’t know whether it’s the dryest on record for this area or not. Gettysburg climate only differs slightly from Westminster, Maryland. But Westminster, Baltimore, and Lancaster have all gotten a lot more rain than here, and Westminster is only 30 minutes away.

I asked dad if he remembers it ever being this dry back on the old farm he grew up on. He said he remembers some droughts, but nothing this bad.

Our trees are turning yellow, our stream is down to barely a trickle, and I keep worrying about our well since it is only 17 feet deep. I am strongly hoping that whatever is feeding our well is also staying at a trickle or more until we can get some decent rain around here.

The drive down to Frederick every day along route 15 is wrought with BURNT (not just dry, BURNT) trees, brown trees, dead trees, dying trees. I -know- I have never seen things this bad before. The drought coupled with intense regular temperatures in the 106 range have created an onslaught of damage.

Dad mowed down our corn Sunday. It was all dead from lack of water, so we have no corn this year. Tomatoes are doing okay, better now that we’ve gotten a submersible pump for the stream. Potatoes I have no clue yet, we’ll try to dig some up and see. I’ll be semi heart-broken if the potatoes are all dead as those are a large staple in our house.

I had many plans for canning this year.

Going through a drought this long (I’d say…maybe 1 or 2 significant rains since May, the rest mainly insignificant sprinkles or instant thunderstorms that last maybe 5 minutes at most but still don’t provide enough water to quench deep down in the plants), I’ve observed a few places that we could better prepare, and then others that will always remain hopeless in such extreme cases.

For example:

1. Rain Barrels – Rain barrels are a great concept of using a lot of under-utilized water. Our roofs provide so much water in a short amount of time, you can fill a rain barrel in a matter of minutes with a good rain. But you need a -lot- of rain barrels for them to be much worth around here. Watering the amount of plants and animals we do, we’d go through a rain barrel in a matter of 2 days. And this drought has lasted several months, and this doesn’t account for human use either.

So while rain barrels help, they don’t help nearly enough unless you have a LOT of them. I do plan to get more.

2. Submersible pump – Great asset to have, wish we had the means for it sooner. But doesn’t do much when the creek is down to trickle.

However, an adjustment in pockets of water could help. Dad is planning to get a bobcat over here and create a swimming pocket in one part of the stream that is surrounded by these big beautiful rocks. The deeper the pocket, the more water available for using the pump to water the garden. If we have several pockets, then we’ll have several reserve “wells” of water once the rains come again.

The downside, however, the pump will likely empty them out pretty fast in this type of drought.

I also don’t like that we only have an electric pump. I’ve always wanted a manual pump, but dad said it would be too much work. Well I figure that, but what happens if the electricity is out? Not too long ago the electricity blew out at work because of extreme heat melting the wires. It -is- possible. I still plan to get a manual pump anyway, I enjoy that type of a “work-out”.

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I’m keeping track of my payments towards my final debt balance (besides the house) to kinda see the progress as we reached my goal of having this gone by or in December 2010 April 2011. This report is slightly different because there is no interest on this, as it was a loan from a friend.

• Starting Balance of Debt in July 2010: $4850
• Total Payments in July 2010: $50
• Total Payments YTD: $200
• Starting Balance for August 2010: $4800
• $0 Goal: December 2010 April 2011

Notes for this month:
What happened to June!? Well, no payments happened in June, unfortunately. Dad’s emergency gall bladder surgery took up the excess I would have used for debt repayment.

Why is July’s payment so small!? Because of the above, in addition to a new air conditioner and getting dads truck fixed, I created excess debt and decided to make minimum payments on this personal loan until this new interest debt is gone.

I don’t know whether I’m going to make posts on the interest debt that was created, only because it’s fairly small and won’t last that long. I hope to have it paid off soon enough so that I’m only focusing on this debt again.

Additional Payments in this series:
May 2010

See also:
My series of paying off dad’s loan in 8 months and My series of paying off my remaining interest debt.

• $29.09 at the grocery store by purchasing what is on sale with my bonus savings card
• $15.22 in coupons from Coupon Clippers website.
• $39.70 at the grocery store by purchasing what is on sale with my bonus savings card
• $24.02 in coupons from Coupon Clippers website.
• $43.99 rebate from my credit card, I guess just from usage. Was a nice surprise!
• $50(ish) by using my “Better World Club” (eco-friendly version of AAA) to tow dads truck to a garage after it broke down. I already had the service since I’m on the road so much. I don’t know how much tow companies usually charge for towing, but its nice to know that I could use this service to tow for free anywhere up to 100 miles

Total Saved: $202.02

I’d like to note that for the last two months I’ve been using this site called Coupon Clippers to purchase coupons on products I already use. For about $5 for a decent chunk of coupons + shipping/handling, I’ve already saved almost $30 off my groceries. That doesn’t count the savings I already get by buying what is on sale. So the purchase of the coupons has already paid for itself 6 times. I find that insanely awesome, and am only disappointed that I did not discover the website sooner. Heck I even have some “buy one get one free” coupons off of there. Of stuff I already buy. That simply means FREE FOOD, people.

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